1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of compressing picture-representing data which uses, for example, run-length encoding. This invention also relates to an apparatus for compressing picture-representing data which uses, for example, run-length encoding. This invention further relates to a data recovery apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In "karaoke" systems, it is known to process picture data representative of characters composing words in songs to provide a special effect on the characters before the picture data is quantized and encoded into words of a run-length code. An example of the special effect is to form borders around the characters. Another example of the special effect is to shade the characters.
In such prior-art systems, to enable the special effect to be changed among different types, it is necessary to prepare a plurality of different picture data representative of characters which are suited for the respective types of the special effect. The different picture data are subjected to different types of processing which correspond to the different types of the special effect, respectively. One is selected from among the processing-resultant picture data before being quantized. Accordingly, the prior-art systems tend to require complicated hardware structures.